Self-destruction
An inherited Life 3.0 scenario · Also shown as Own Goal
Humanity becomes extinct before creating superintelligence.
Life under this arrangement
Human institutions fail before any superintelligence is built. It is an endpoint to examine as a risk, not a society with benefits to make attractive.
- Practical authority
- No continuing human government.
- Benefits and ownership
- No surviving human beneficiaries.
- Human and digital status
- Humanity becomes extinct; no ASI is required.
- Technical premises
- Catastrophe arises from other human or technological risks.
- Attractions
- No human benefit is claimed for this endpoint.
- Costs and objections
- Human extinction and lost future possibilities.
- Not specified
- The causal pathway; it is not a claim that one specific disaster is inevitable.
This catastrophic endpoint does not instantiate preferred institutions or a valued successor world. It remains available for expectations and risk comparison, but supplies no positive preference support. Known conflicts, including the loss of biological humanity, still count.
Earlier project summary and extension
No AI takeover needed: humans use the capability against each other, through war, engineered pandemics, or cascading systemic failure, and civilization does not make it through the transition.
Preserved from the earlier project catalogue. This is project interpretation, not a source quotation or an extra matching descriptor. Where its extension differs from the original premise, the source distinction above governs.
All authored features used in comparison
These are editorial descriptors, independent of the historical map. Unspecified and variant-dependent properties remain unresolved when matching preferences.
- Practical human governing authority
- Absent
Humans do not retain practical final authority
Linked source premise. The linked endpoint ends human society, so no human government continues.
- Revisable governing mandates
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- A practical right to leave
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- Several self-governing communities
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- A guaranteed material floor
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- Private ownership of productive resources
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- Continuing biological humanity
- Absent
Biological humanity does not continue
Linked source premise. Human extinction is explicit in the linked endpoint.
- Others’ choice to transform themselves
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- Standing for artificial persons
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- Enforced limits on selected capabilities
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- Visible exercise of governing power
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
- Practical independence from a technical provider
- Inapplicable
This institution or choice is not instantiated in this scenario
Not instantiated here. No surviving human society instantiates this condition here. Unknown successor institutions are not treated as an explicit rejection of it.
Compare the institutional difference
Origin and source status
Original concept: Max Tegmark, Life 3.0 (2017), chapter 5. The short premise is paraphrased from FLI’s reference. Life, institutions and feature descriptors are this project’s editorial interpretation, not additional claims from the book.
- AI Aftermath Scenarios · Self-destruction row; Life 3.0, chapter 5
Inherited concept · Checked 2026-09-11
IR Worldview Inventory · AI-assisted editorial draft · futures-catalogue-0.3. Attribution does not imply endorsement. No current-development or community-attribution claim is inferred from this entry.